LEGAL 

AND  POLITICAL  DE- 
VELOPMENT OF  THE 
PACIFIC  COAST 
STATES 

By  ORRIN  K.  McMURRAY 

Professor  of  Law,  University  of  California 


Reprinted  from  Nature  and  Science  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
Published  by  Paul  Elder  and  Company,  San  Francisco,  1915. 


T 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 
PACIFIC  COAST  STATES 

BY  ORRIN  K.  MCMURRAY 

Professor  of  Law,  University  of  California 

THE  legal  and  political  conditions  of  a  State 
are  to  a  large  though  undefined  extent  the 
product  of  a  multitude  of  social  and  economic 
forces.  These  forces  are  themselves,  in  turn,  the 
result  of  the  operation  of  others,  often  purely  physi- 
cal, such  as  climate,  geographical  location,  geological 
structure  and  the  like.  It  is  a  fascinating  task  to 
attempt  to  trace  a  particular  institution  to  the  social 
conditions  which  called  it  into  being,  and  from 
thence  to  the  natural  forces  which  determined  these 
social  conditions.  But  by  reason  of  the  complexity 
of  the  problem,  because  of  the  ever  present  per- 
sonal element,  which  eludes  classification,  it  is 
a  task  fraught  with  the  danger  of  rash  generaliza- 
tion. 

It  is  believed  that  the  legal  history  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  States,  and  particularly  that  of  California, 
affords  excellent  material  for  the  study  of  the  in- 
fluence of  natural  conditions  upon  legal  and  po- 
litical institutions.  Take,  for  illustration,  the  fact 
that  gold  existed  in  a  free  form  in  the  creeks  and 
river  beds  of  the  State.  Its  discovery  found  the 
community  in  the  pastoral  stage  of  civilization, 
without  fixed  legal  principles  or  definite  institu- 
tions; it  transformed  the  social  system,  as  if  by 
magic,  into  a  group  of  vigorous,  independent  units, 
struggling  for  some  sort  of  law  and  social  order. 
As  free  gold  created  the  mining  camp,  so  the  mining 
camps  gave  birth  to  law  all  their  own.  Their  popu- 
lar courts,  administering  a  rude  criminal  justice, 
and  framed  to  meet  only  a  temporary  exigency, 
left,  it  is  true,  little  trace  on  the  future  jurispru- 
dence of  the  State.  But  the  customs  evolved  in  the 
camps  with  reference  to  property  rights  had  more 
permanent  results,  and  were  unique  contributions 
to  the  legal  development  of  the  entire  United  States. 
The  American  law  with  respect  to  the  discovery, 
location  and  development  of  mining  claims  owes 
its  character  and  form  to  these  customs;  the  law 
with  regard  to  the  appropriation  and  use  of  water 
in  the  arid  and  semi-arid  States,  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  has  been  evolved  from  them.  The 
miner's  needs  required  that  water  be  taken  from 

267 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
the  streams  and  carried  in  flumes,  often  a  consider- 
able distance,  to  enable  him  to  work  his  placer 
claim.  The  rule  of  the  older  States  and  of  England, 
whereby  the  use  of  running  water  was  limited  to 
him  whose  land  was  bounded  by  the  stream,  was 
unsuitable  to  economic  needs  and  yielded  to  the 
greater  force.  The  evolution  of  vague  and  in- 
definite custom  into  positive  law  finds  no  better 
illustration  in  modern  times  than  in  the  process 
by  which  the  unwritten  usages  of  California  gold 
miners  became  a  most  important  part  of  the  law 
of  mines  and  waters. 

In  many  other  branches  we  may  trace  the  direct 
influence  of  the  frontier  civilization  which  resulted 
from  the  sudden  settlement  of  the  State  by  ad- 
venturous gold-seekers.  The  criminal  law,  as  laid 
down  in  later  statutes  and  judicial  decisions,  affords 
illustrations  of  miners'  conceptions  of  justice.  For 
many  years,  the  theft  of  any  horse,  regardless  of 
its  value,  was  grand  larceny,  though,  generally, 
to  constitute  this  crime  the  property  stolen  must 
have  been  worth  at  least  fifty  dollars.  Even  to 
the  present  day,  the  law  of  California  sustains  the 
right  of  self-defense  to  an  extent  not  countenanced 
in  most  of  the  older  communities — the  right  of  one 
feloniously  attacked  to  maintain  his  ground,  even 
if  he  has  to  take  his  assailant's  life  to  do  so,  rather 
than  to  flee,  if  possible. 

These  illustrations  from  the  field  of  criminal 
law  may  be  supplemented  bv  others  from  the  law 
which  deals  with  the  rights  of  the  citizen.  People, 
including  lawyers  and  judges,  are  often  heard  to 
speak  of  the  right  of  property  as  if  it  were  an 
absolute  right,  the  same  in  all  times  and  places. 
A  little  study  of  legal  history  would  convince  them 
that  property  does  not  mean  the  same  thing  in  all 
places  and  at  all  times,  and  its  concept  is  based  on 
social  forces.  For  example,  any  elementary  treatise 
on  general  law  will  point  out  that  under  the  com- 
mon law  of  England  and  of  the  States  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union  any  unauthorized  entry  upon  one's  land 
by  another,  or  by  another's  cattle,  gives  the  right 
to  an  action  at  law  in  favor  of  the  land  owner. 
But  the  land  owner's  property  right  was  never  so 
extensive  as  this  in  California.  It  never  was  the 
common  law  of  that  State  that  a  man  was  liable 
for  his  cattle's  trespasses.  The  pastoral  conditions 
which  preceded  the  stage  of  the  gold  miners,  and 
which  continued  to  exist  side  by  side  with  the 
miners'  social  system,  would  have  made  the  appli- 
cation of  the  common  law  to  the  situation  in  Cali- 
fornia intolerable,  and  the  courts  early  recognized 
268 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
that  fact.  It  is  only  as  the  agricultural  interests 
have  become  predominant  that  the  law  with  regard 
to  trespassing  cattle  has,  by  gradual  statutory 
amendment,  been  placed  on  a  basis  similar  to  that 
in  communities  where  agriculture  was  always  an 
important  industry. 

Even  with  respect  to  the  other  branch  of  the 
land  owner's  fundamental  right — his  right  to  sue 
in  a  court  of  record  for  another's  mere  entry  on 
his  land,  though  the  entry  be  effected  by  mistake 
and  without  actual  damage — the  law  of  California 
has  never  been  precisely  like  that  of  England,  which 
prevails  in  most  of  the  States.  It  is  true  that, 
theoretically,  one  may  sue  in  a  court  of  record  for 
a  trespass  on  his  land  against  another  who  enters 
even  without  doing  actual  damage,  and  may  recover 
nominal  damages.  But  nominal  damages  recovered 
in  a  district  or  superior  court  in  California  never 
have  carried  the  right  to  costs  in  actions  of  tres- 
pass, as  was  the  case  under  the  common  law  of 
England.  On  the  contrary,  the  party  who  is 
awarded  only  nominal  damages  must  pay  the  tres- 
passer's costs  of  suit.  Moreover,  no  general  right 
exists  to  have  the  appellate  court  reverse  a  case 
where  the  jury  refuses  to  give  a  verdict  for  the 
plaintiff,  who  has  only  technically  suffered  an  in- 
fringement of  his  right.  For  a  mere  trespass,  there- 
fore, the  land  owner  may  justify  his  right  only 
at  the  expense  of  paying  his  own  and  his  adver- 
sary's costs,  and  even  that  slight  satisfaction  is 
accorded  him  at  the  uncontrolled  discretion  of  a 
jury  of  his  neighbors.  He  can  not  review  a  jury's 
refusal  to  award  such  damages.  The  practical  ab- 
sence of  legal  remedy  has  a  tendency  to  cause  the 
remedy  of  self-help  to  be  invoked  at  the  risk  of 
provoking  quarrels  and  breaches  of  the  public 
peace.  The  rule  as  to  costs  has  discouraged  resort 
to  the  courts  for  the  redress  of  slight  injuries  not 
only  in  respect  to  property  but  to  personal  rights, 
such  as  assaults,,  slanders  and  the  like.  Its  effect 
is  practically  to  remove  from  the  domain  of  posi- 
tive law  a  large  and  important  class  of  rights. 
This  attitude  of  the  law  indicates  the  frontier  in- 
fluence, the  spirit  of  the  gold  miner  and  the  herds- 
man, the  willingness  to  sacrifice  legal  forms  to 
"rude  justice." 

We  may  almost  date  the  beginnings  of  legal  his- 
tory in  the  Pacific  States  from  the  coming  of  the 
gold-seekers  to  California.  Their  incursion  was  so 
sudden,  their  personalities  so  vigorous,  that  most  of 
the  half-formed  and  primitive  institutions  of  the 
Mexican  era  were  swept  away.  So  far  as  concerns 

269 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
the  constitution  and  frame  of  government  and 
fundamental  rights  of  the  citizen,  the  older  system 
has  contributed  nothing  to  legal  history.  The  po- 
litical institutions  are,  it  is  believed,  as  if  Spain 
and  Mexico  had  never  been.  Some  elements,  how- 
ever, of  the  older  system  in  the  field  of  private 
rights  survived  the  shock  of  the  American  invasion, 
the  most  important  of  which  are  in  the  field  of 
family  law.  Considering  the  disparity  between  the 
male  and  female  population  in  1850,  it  was  natural 
that  a  svstem  of  marital  rights,  fairer  in  its  treat- 
ment of  woman  than  the  English  common  law, 
should  have  been  left  undisturbed  by  the  pioneers. 
Had  the  settlers  come  with  their  wives  and  families, 
they  would  probably  have  brought  with  them  the 
common  law,  as  well  as  the  social  conditions  of 
the  older  States,  based  upon  the  English  law.  But 
the  remoteness  of  the  new  Eldorado  was  such  that 
those  who  came  were  either  young,  single  men,  or 
they  left  their  families  at  home — transient  gold- 
seekers.  They  found  already  existing  a  tolerably 
well  established  system  of  marital  rights.  Neither 
selfish  instincts  nor  a  desire  to  improve  conditions 
prompted  them  to  change  the  property  rights  of 
the  few  women  in  the  State.  Consequently  the 
Spanish  law  of  the  community  of  goods  remained 
a  permanent  part  of  the  legal  system  of  California. 
The  wife  became  to  a  certain  extent  a  partner 
with  her  husband  in  the  gains  made  during  the 
marriage — an  idea  far  removed  from  the  concep- 
tion then  at  the  basis  of  the  American  law  generally, 
that  the  husband  was  the  sole  owner  of  such  prop- 
erty. To  attribute,  however,  the  permanent  adop- 
tion of  the  community  system  in  California  ex- 
clusively to  social  conditions,  based  upon  the  dis- 
covery of  free  gold  and  the  geographical  isolation 
of  the  territory  by  ocean,  mountains  and  deserts 
from  the  center  of  population,  would,  perhaps,  be 
unwarranted.  The  vitality  and  force  of  the  system, 
inherent  in  the  fact  that  it  is  based  upon  more 
humane  conceptions,  has  enabled  it  to  conquer  the 
common  law  under  conditions  not  so  favorable  for 
its  triumph  as  those  that  existed  in  pioneer  Califor- 
nia. In  Washington,  for  instance,  though  French 
and  Spanish  institutions  had  but  little  opportunity 
of  striking  root,  the  State  adopted  this  system  of 
property  between  the  spouses. 

The  same  causes  that  contributed  to  perpetuate 
the  community  were  operative  with  respect  to  the 
subject  of  marriage  in  general.  Each  of  the  con- 
stitutions of  California,  that  of  1849  and  that  of 
1879,  has  a  provision  that  marriage  is  a  civil  con- 

270 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
tract,  enunciating  in  this  respect  the  theory  of  the 
Spanish-Mexican  law,  which,  like  the  early  canon 
law,  permitted  the  establishment  of  marriage  with- 
out either  civil  or  religious  ceremony.  Until  1895, 
the  statutory  law  of  the  State  remained  in  this  con- 
dition. Since  that  date  solemnization  is  required 
to  constitute  a  valid  marriage.  In  the  matter  of 
the  legitimation  and  adoption  of  children,  also, 
Spanish  law  has  had  an  important  influence. 

The  Spanish-Mexican  law  theoretically  governed 
the  civil  rights  of  all  persons  in  California  from  the 
conquest  in  1846  until  the  formal  adoption  of  the 
common  law  of  England  in  1850.  Many  questions, 
therefore,  have  necessarily  come  before  the  courts 
involving  rights  acquired  prior  to  1850,  especially 
with  reference  to  land  titles,  and  neither  the  his- 
torian nor  the  lawyer  can  afford  to  neglect  the 
system.  But  it  has  affected  private  rights  rather 
than  the  main  outlines  of  the  law,  save  in  respect 
to  the  important  survivals  noticed. 

The  work  of  lawyers  and  publicists  played  an 
important  part  from  the  beginning  in  the  moulding 
of  juristic  ideas,  and  the  formal  bases  of  the  written 
law  were  laid  by  men  of  experience  and  learning 
in  public  affairs.  But  these  men  themselves  were 
colored  by  the  opinions  and  prejudices  of  the  so- 
ciety in  which  they  lived;  they  were  young,  vigor- 
ous, untrammeled  by  precedent,  adventurous.  The 
constitution  of  1849  was,  it  is  true,  an  instrument 
pretty  much  of  the  traditional  kind.  The  over- 
shadowing importance  of  the  slavery  question  made 
the  time  one  unfavorable  to  political  or  social  in- 
novation. It  was  not  in  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention, but  in  the  legislature  of  1850,  that  the 
vigorous  and  independent  public  men  of  the  in- 
fant State  found  their  expression  and  tried  experi- 
ments. From  New  York  came  the  idea  of  reform 
in  legal  procedure,  just  introduced  by  the  efforts 
of  David  Dudley  Field,  whose  brother,  Stephen  J. 
Field  was  one  of  the  dominant  personalities  of  early 
California.  The  distinction  between  forms  of  pro- 
ceeding at  law  and  in  equity  was  abolished,  and 
a  fusion  of  the  two  systems  effected.  California 
was  the  first  State  outside  of  New  York  to  try  this 
experiment,  a  tremendous  forward  step  in  juris- 
prudence, fundamental  in  all  true  legal  reform.  In 
the  development  of  its  jurisprudence,  the  State, 
thanks  to  this  reform,  has  from  the  beginning  been 
unhampered  by  the  existence  of  forms  which  stand 
in  the  way  of  complete  justice.  New  York  also 
provided  the  model  for  the  law  of  real  property 
and  conveyancing  in  the  statutes  adopted  upon  this 

271 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
subject.  The  desire  was  for  greater  simplicity  and 
for  greater  restrictions  upon  the  power  of  me  in- 
dividual to  withdraw  land  from  commerce  by  com- 
plicated wills  and  settlements.  Traces  of  New  Eng- 
land influence  may  be  found  in  the  laws  relative 
to  commercial  matters,  such  as  the  liability  of  di- 
rectors in  corporations.  The  South,  too,  contributed 
its  share.  The  system  of  administration  of  estates 
of  decedents  came  from  Texas.  From  the  South 
also  came  what  some  foreign  jurists  regard  as  one 
of  America's  most  important  contributions  to  legal 
concepts — the  laws  providing  for  an  exemption 
from  execution  for  debt  of  a  portion  of  the  debtor's 
property,  an  application  on  the  positive  side  of 
the  conception  which  underlies  the  principle  of 
the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt.  Home- 
stead and  exemption  laws  are  now  found  in  nearly 
every  civilized  country  in  the  world.  Perhaps, 
however,  the  most  important  statute  of  the  first 
legislature  was  that  adopting  the  common  law  of 
England  rather  than  the  civil  law  of  Spain  as  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  State. 

Professor  Royce  in  his  story  of  California  has 
pointed  out  how  the  development  of  the  mechanical 
methods  of  the  miners  reacted  upon  social  con- 
ditions, how  the  evolution  from  the  "pan"  through 
the  "rocker"  and  "cradle,"  to  hydraulic  mining 
and  lastly  to  quartz  mining  caused  a  correspond- 
ing evolution  from  a  disorganized,  anti-social  in- 
dividualism into  an  economic  and  political  organi- 
zation which  might  serve  as  a  true  basis  for  a 
State.  The  period  of  the  50's  was  that  during 
which  this  process  was  taking  place.  Out  of  the 
wreck  and  chaos  of  unrestrained  individualism, 
something  like  order  had  been  brought  by  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Civil  War.  California  was  ceasing 
to  be  the  land  of  the  gold-seeker.  The  era  of  agri- 
culture had  begun. 

The  rich  soil  of  California's  great  plains  formed 
the  basis  of  the  State's  next  era  of  development, 
that  of  the  great  farms,  of  railroad  building,  of 
commercial  expansion.  The  climate  had  much  to 
do  with  the  history  of  this  period.  The  large  farm, 
before  the  application  of  irrigation,  was  an  eco- 
nomic necessity.  The  uncertainty  of  the  rainfall, 
the  dangers  of  drought,  the  necessity  for  transpor- 
tation to  distant  markets,  required  the  farmer  to 
be  a  financier,  a  man  of  affairs.  Often  he  was 
neither.  The  element  of  chance  controlled  almost 
as  it  did  in  the  days  of  gold;  the  wheat  farmer  was 
the  slave  of  the  elements.  Nor  were  the  great  farms 
conducive  to  a  satisfactory  social  development.  They 

272 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
tended  to  the  encouragement  of  a  class  of  wander- 
ing laborers,  undesirable  in  the  structure  of  the 
State,  to  the  employment  of  the  Chinese  and  the 
alienation  of  the  white  population  from  agricultural 
labor,  to  the  intensification  of  race  hatred.  The 
period  was  not  fertile  in  improvement  of  legal  and 
political  institutions.  One  of  the  most  notable 
events  during  the  period  was  the  adoption  of  the 
codes  in  1872.  The  attempt  to  state  the  law,  es- 
pecially the  complicated  portion  which  deals  with 
respect  to  civil  rights,  in  the  form  of  a  code  has 
not  often  been  made  in  English-speaking  countries. 
The  willingness  to  try  experiments  which  has  al- 
ways characterized  the  Pacific  States  is  illustrated 
by  the  readiness  with  which  the  codes  were  adopted 
in  California,  and,  once  adopted  in  rather  crude 
form,  subsequently  neglected. 

This  readiness  to  resort  to  new  ideas  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  optimism  of  the  people,  an  op- 
timism perhaps  in  part  the  result  of  the  even  and 
moderate  climate,  is  well  illustrated  in  the  consti- 
tution of  1879,  the  most  striking  political  document 
of  the  agricultural  era.  This  instrument  is  frankly 
expressive  of  the  farmer's  point  of  view,  the  farmer 
who  had  been  the  victim  of  natural  and  economic 
forces.  The  legislature,  for  example,  is  directed 
"to  encourage  by  all  suitable  means  the  promotion 
of  intellectual,  scientific,  moral  and  agricultural  im- 
provement." The  temper  of  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion found  nothing  absurd  in  the  climax.  The  crude 
theory  that  the  legislative  department  should  be  man- 
acled in  order  that  it  may  be  honest  finds  full  expres- 
sion. Thirty-three  cases  are  enumerated  in  which  the 
passage  of  special  laws  is  forbidden.  To  prevent 
fraud,  every  act  must  contain  the  true  title,  and 
must  deal  with  only  one  subject  under  penalty  of 
being  void.  No  gift  of  public  moneys  can  be  made, 
no  power  shall  exist  to  pledge  the  public  money 
in  favor  of  any  private  or  municipal  enterprise. 
We  may  smile  at  these  remedies  for  the  purpose 
of  making  the  people's  representatives  honest,  but 
the  document  is  a  tragical  commentary  on  the 
public  corruption  that  preceded  the  date  of  the 
convention. 

Hostility  towards  corporations  is  the  keynote 
of  this  constitution.  It  perpetuates  the  radical  pro- 
visions of  the  civil  code  of  1872,  which  forbade 
the  creation  of  corporations  with  strictly  limited 
liability,  and  made  each  stockholder  liable  for  his 
proportion  of  the  debts  of  the  corporation.  An 
aggregation  of  persons  with  strictly  limited  liability, 
which  the  most  eminent  jurists  tell  us  is  an 

273 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
essential  for  the  proper  conduct  of  modern  un- 
dertakings, is  theoretically  impossible  under  this 
constitution.  Practically,  however,  the  provision 
regarding  stockholders'  liability  has  proved  inef- 
fective. Though  it  has  doubtless  deterred  capital 
from  investment  in  the  State,  it  has  not  restrained 
reckless  finance  or  protected  honest  creditors. 

In  spite  of  its  defects,  the  second  constitution 
of  California  is  instructive  to  one  interested  in  the 
larger  problems  of  legal  development.  The  crea- 
tion of  a  State  Railroad  Commission  with  the  power 
of  fixing  rates  was  an  innovation  in  American  law. 
That  the  commission  failed  of  practical  result  was 
due  in  large  part  to  the  fact  that  the  office  was  elec- 
tive, and  the  commissioners  for  the  most  part  incom- 
Eetent.  It  served,  nevertheless,  as  a  guide  for  future 
igislation,  not  only  in  the  Pacific  States,  but 
throughout  the  nation.  But  the  most  revolutionary 
feature  of  the  new  constitution  was  its  fundamental 
theory.  It  recognizes  the  written  constitution  as 
a  means  of  direct  legislation.  The  original  theory 
of  the  federal  and  early  State  constitutions  is  re- 
pudiated, and  from  a  negative  instrument  defining 
the  powers  of  the  departments  of  government,  the 
constitution  developed  into  a  code  of  law  adopted 
directly  by  the  people.  That  the  people  came  to 
regard  it  as  such  a  code  is  apparent  from  the  fact 
that  between  1898  and  1911,  one  hundred  and  one 
amendments  were  made.  Since  then  the  initiative 
and  referendum  have  become  a  part  of  the  funda- 
mental law.  The  line  between  constitutional  amend- 
ment and  referendum  or  initiative  law  is  shadowy, 
and  will  doubtless  become  even  more  vague.  In 
effect,  it  mav  be  said  that  California,  as  well  as 
Oregon  and  Washington,  are  living  under  a  system 
of  government  far  removed  from  that  of  New  Eng- 
land. The  earlier  period  of  legal  development  had 
been  marked  by  independence  of  thought  in  the 
field  of  private  law,  the  more  modern  period  by 
the  same  characteristics  in  the  field  of  public  law. 

In  the  latest  phase  of  the  development  of  her 
law,  California  has  passed  out  of  the  economic 
stage  of  the  wheat  farmer  into  the  stage  of  inten- 
sive cultivation  of  the  soil,  of  the  irrigated  farm. 
Horticulture  and  dairying  have  become  more  im- 
portant than  agriculture  and  mining,  while  the  dis- 
covery of  petroleum  has  served  to  develop  many 
new  industries.  A  marked  tendency  towards  urban 
growth  has  come  with  improved  means  of  trans- 
portation. A  more  complex  state  of  society  has 
been  evolved,  and  with  it  have  come  new  and 
different  problems. 

274 


LEGAL  AND  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT 
The  recent  years  have  produced  the  initiative, 
referendum  and  recall;  woman  suffrage;  a  com- 
mission to  supersede  the  former  ineffective  rail- 
road commission,  with  powers  extending  over 
public  utilities  other  than  railroads;  workmen's 
compensation  legislation;  a  direct  primary  election 
law;  a  minimum  wage  law.  The  last  decade  has 
been  an  era  of  fundamental  reorganization.  We 
have  traveled  far  from  the  individualism  of  the 
first  "diggings"  to  modern  "social  insurance."  But 
the  daring  and  venturous  character  of  the  miner 
that,  carried  too  far,  often  led  him  to  offenses 
against  society,  is  at  the  basis  of  the  social  and 
political  experiments  of  the  present  day — the  spirit 
of  optimism,  of  faith  in  the  future,  of  trust  in 
humanity. 

It  would  perhaps  be  unprofitable  here  to  trace 
the  legal  history  of  the  other  States  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  in  detail.  Their  settlement  has  been  more 
recent,  their  development  more  regular,  their  de- 
partures from  normal  types  generally  less  marked, 
and  they  have  largely  fallen  under  the  influence 
of  California,  so  that  the  history  of  the  law  of  that 
State  is  the  key  to  most  of  what  is  novel  in  their 
law.  In  the  more  recent  developments  in  the  line 
of  radical  legislation,  it  is  true  that  Washington 
and  Oregon  have  in  manv  respects  preceded  Cali- 
fornia. The  most  radical  and  fundamental  piece 
of  modern  popular  law-making,  however,  that  pro- 
viding for  the  making  of  laws  directly  by  the  peo- 
ple, was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  product  of  the 
California  constitutional  convention  of  1879. 

REFERENCES 

ENCYCLOPAEDIA  BRITANNICA 

1910-11.  (Articles  on  California,   Oregon  and  "Washington.) 
Vol.    5,    pp.    7-20;    vol.    20,    pp.    242-250;   vol.    28,    pp. 
353-358. 
GOODWIN,  C. 

1914.  The  establishment  of  state  government  in  California, 
1846-1850.     (The  Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.),  pp.  xiv+359. 
HUNT,  R.  D. 

1895.  The  genesis  of  California's  first  constitution  (1846-49). 
Johns    Hopkins    Univ.     Studies    in    Historical    and 
Political   Science,   vol.    13,   pp.   359-417. 
1898.  Legal  status  of  California,  1846-49.    Amer.  Acad.  Pol. 

&  Soc.  Sci.,  Annals,  vol.  12,  pp.   387-408. 
McMURRAY,  O.  K. 

1914.  Some  tendencies  in  constitution  making.     Calif.  Law 

Rev.,   vol.   2,   pp.   203-224. 
ROYCE,   J. 

1886.  California,  from  the  conquest  in  1846  to  the  second 
vigilance  committee  in  San  Francisco  (1856). 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  N.  Y.),  pp.  xv+513. 


275 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introductory  Note vii 

The  Approaches  to  the  Pacific  Coast      ....       1 

FREDERICK   J.   TEGGART.     Associate   Professor   of 
Pacific  Coast  History,  University  of  California. 

Spanish  Settlements  on  the  Pacific  Coast    ...       9 
CHARLES  E.  CHAPMAN.     Sometime  Traveling  Fel- 
low in  Pacific  Coast  History,  N.   S.  G.  W.,  Uni- 
versity of  California. 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  Panama  Canal  ....     15 
EUDOLPH  J.   TAUSSIG.     Secretary,  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition,  San  Francisco. 

Weather  Conditions  on  the  Pacific  Coast    ...     19 
ALEXANDER    McAoiE.      Abbott    Lawrence    Botch 
Professor  of  Meteorology,  Harvard  University. 

Physiographic  Geography 31 

BULIFF     S.     HOLWAY.       Associate     Professor     of 
Physical    Geography,   University    of    California. 

Geology  of  the  West  Coast  Region  of  the  United 

States 41 

C.  F.  TOLMAN,  JR.     Associate  Professor  of  Eco- 
nomic Geology,  Stanford  University. 

Earthquakes 62 

J.  C.  BRANNER.     President,   Stanford  University. 

Mines  and  Mining 65 

H.  FOSTER  BAIN.     Editor,  Mining  and  Scientific 
Press,   San   Francisco. 

Petroleum  Resources  and  Industries  of  the  Pa- 
cific Coast 75 

EALPH  ARNOLD.     Consulting  Geologist  and  Petro- 
leum Engineer,  Los  Angeles. 

Significant  Features  in  the  History  of  Life  on 

the  Pacific  Coast 88 

JOHN   C.    MERRIAM.     Professor   of   Palaeontology 
and  Historical  Geology,  University  of  California. 

The  Vertebrate  Fauna  of  the  Pacific  Coast .     .     .  104 
JOSEPH   GRINNELL.     Director,   Museum  of  Verte- 
brate Zoology,  University  of  California. 

Fishes  of  the  Pacific  Coast 115 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN.     Chancellor,  Stanford  Uni- 
versity. 

Marine  Biology  on  the  Pacific  Coast 124 

CHARLES  ATWOOD  KOFOID.     Professor  of  Zoology, 
University  of  California. 

Oceanic  Circulation  and  Temperature  Off  the 

Pacific  Coast 133 

GEORGE  F.  McEwEN.     Scripps  Institution  for  Bio- 
logical Eesearch,  La  Jolla,  California. 

Insects  of  the  Pacific  Coast 141 

VERNON  L.  KELLOGG.     Professor  of  Entomology, 
Stanford  University. 


CONTENTS  PAGE 

Flora  of  the  Pacific  Coast 147 

HARVEY   MONROE  HALL.     Assistant   Professor   of 
Botany,  University  of  California. 

Forests  of  the  Pacific  Coast 159 

WILLIS  LINN  JEPSON.     Associate  Professor  in  the 
Department  of  Botany,  University  of  California. 

The  Deserts  and  Desert  Flora  of  the  West  .     .     .168 
LEEOY  ABRAMS.     Associate  Professor  of  Botany, 
Stanford  University. 

The  Marine  Flora  of  the  Pacific  Coast   .     .     .     .177 
WILLIAM  ALBERT  SETCHELL.    Professor  of  Botany, 
University  of  California. 

Burbank's  Gardens 185 

VERNON  L.  KELLOGG.     Professor  of  Entomology, 
Stanford  University. 

Ethnology  of  the  Pacific  Coast 189 

T.  T.  WATERMAN.    Assistant  Professor  of  Anthro- 
pology, University  of  California. 

Astronomical  Observatories 197 

E.    G.    AITKEN.      Astronomer,    Lick    Observatory, 
Mount  Hamilton. 

Museums  of  the  Pacific  Coast 207 

BARTON  W.  EVERMANN.    Director  of  the  Museum, 
California   Academy   of    Sciences,    San   Francisco. 

Agricultural  Development  of  the  Pacific  Coast  .  214 
E.  J.  WICKSON.     Professor  of  Horticulture,  Uni- 
versity  of   California. 

Some  Notable  Irrigation  and  Hydro-Electric  De- 
velopments  228 

C.  E.  GRUNSKY.    President,  American  Engineering 
Corporation,   San   Francisco. 

Chemical  Resources  and  Industries 237 

HARRY    EAST    MILIJJR.      Consulting   Chemist    and 
Metallurgist,  San  Francisco. 

Mountaineering  on  the  Pacific  Coast     ....  246 
JOSEPH   N.   LECONTE.     Professor   of   Engineering 
Mechanics,  University  of  California. 

Outdoor  Life  and  the  Fine  Arts 252 

JOHN  GALEN  HOWARD.    Director,  School  of  Archi- 
tecture, University  of  California. 

Literary  Landmarks  on  the  Pacific  Coast  .     .     .  263 
S.  S.  SEWARD,  JR.    Assistant  Professor  of  English, 
Stanford  University. 

Legal  and  Political  Development  of  the  Pacific 

Coast  States 267 

OREIN   K.   MCMTJRRAY.     Professor   of  Law,  Uni- 
versity of  California. 

Scenic  Excursions 276 

A.  O.  LEUSCHNEE.     Professor  of  Astronomy,  Uni- 
versity of  California. 

Index 295 


LAW  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  C  M  IFORNIA 


